The same thing happened with Super Mario All-Stars, Persona 2, Digital Devil Saga, Shin Megami Nocturne, and Mario Dance Dance Revolution. All of them were eventually reprinted. The price of the game on the resale market is the best indication to a publisher that they didn't make enough and are passing up on some easy money by turning the printing presses back on.

I have a new found love for the Dragon Quest series after playing IX (my first Dragon Quest game) and DQVI. I plan to get Dragon Quest V too, but I think I will be waiting for the inevitable reprint.

Can you think of any CD based games where the publisher didn't reprint the title when the resale price was higher than the retail price? If you do you might be able to convince me to pay the extra money to get my Dragon Quest fix.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

There is a new rare game for Playstation 3 fans to collect - NBA Elite 11.

NBA Elite 11 sells for about $300 used and $350 new and only eight copies have sold so far.

Why is this game so rare and will it be a good collectible in the future?

NBA Elite 11 History

NBA Elite 11 was developed at Electronic Arts as a reinvention of their NBA Live series of basketball games. The game was originally slated to come out in September 2010 to coincide with the start of the new NBA season, but it was delayed due to quality issues.

In November, EA officially canceled the game and said any future NBA games would be handled by a different developer. BUT a few copies were sent to retailers as samples. AND a few of those samples made their way to eBay.

I've contacted two of the sellers who listed copies of this game and both confirmed they were samples from Electronic Arts but apparently it is the complete version of the game.

How Rare is NBA Elite 11?

With games like this it is hard to say how many copies actually exist. When a game is canceled the publisher stops marketing efforts so copies of the game will no longer ship to retailers or reviewers. Anyone who had a copy is generally supposed to send it back to EA so it can be destroyed.

Right now there are eight confirmed copies of the game in the wild, but more copies can come on the market at any time. Other retailers or reviewers might still have copies they can decide to sell, or EA might decide to sell all their copies at some point.

A few weeks ago we wrote about the Stadium Events Merry-Go-Round and the auction with the ridiculously high $500,000 price. The seller decided to list it in a straight auction with a starting bid of $0.01 but there is a reserve.

The auction is up to $21,800 now, which is $1,000 lower than the price they paid. With more than three days left in the auction, I think there is a good chance the seller will at least break even.